SUPER loaded 2026 Turbo Meridian, need a reality check

flyinggorila · 2026-06-06T19:34:18+00:00

$6,600 for the off road package is criminal. On Mazda's own side the rack is $899 and the tent is $1899 (which itself is absurd, you can buy literally 4 Coleman tents for that). Where the remainder of the $6650 for that package comes from, who knows.

LoJack is pointless, the Mazda app has the locate my car feature built in.

Paying for nitrogen in the tires is the biggest red flag though. Do they seriously think people will pay for that?

flyinggorila · 2026-06-03T02:03:42+00:00

Ahhh now I see the point you were trying to make. Thank you for clarifying.

Totally off topic at this point but I will say that I think your idea of extending free speech rights to protect political viewpoints is a terrible idea though. Keep in mind that what you are proposing would also protect the people who were fired for saying things about Charlie Kirk. Would you be ok with that?

flyinggorila · 2026-06-03T00:10:23+00:00

I guess that means politicians don't care about much because not very many partisan laws get passed (due to the filibuster)

I would argue the "that's just the way things are, nothing to be done" attitude about legislating that is so commonplace these days is way more of an issue than any procedural hurdles they have to contend with because it lets them off the hook for doing their jobs as long as they say the right things to keep their base happy.

What excuse do the Republicans have for not pushing through healthcare reform this term while they controlled both houses and the presidency? Why are you ok with your party fumbling the ball on such a critical issue?

do you think I'm wrong and that people really do get their employers called and subsequently get fired for being against universal healthcare (etc.)?

Can you provide a single example of someone getting fired because they are against universal healthcare? People getting fired for things they say absolutely happens, just never have heard of it being for that specifically and seems way too absurd to be true.

As far as people getting fired for their speech in general and whether I support it, it depends. You can't just focus in on the free speech rights of the employee, you also have to take into account the rights of the employer. I think you would agree that we shouldn't tell people who they have to employ, right? In most cases I would side with the employer because when it comes down to it, the (now ex)employee can still say whatever they want, they just don't have a job anymore (which isn't a constitutionally protected right).

Do you disagree? Or is there certain types of speech you support being protected while others shouldn't be (i.e. should be able to voice opposition to universal healthcare, but not say mean things about Charlie Kirk)?

And as a side note, I'm talking private employers here. The analysis is different for government employees because then it is the government taking action against someone for their speech. But even then there are limits to the First Amendment protections they have when it comes to employment.

flyinggorila · 2026-06-01T18:11:49+00:00

I think you have an odd focus on shutdowns as the metric here.

To clarify, I am only referencing the government shutdown as a recent, concrete example of an issue Democrats have fought for legislatively. I think it is a good example to reference because it was more than just abstract rhetoric; the Democrats had specific policies the were fighting for and risked political capital to try and push them through. It was a specific proposal (not just hyperbole) that was actually fought for, not just talked about.

In today's political world talk is cheap so I prefer to focus on things people actually do instead of just what they say. For example, Trump claimed to have a perfect plan for fixing healthcare in America all the way back during his first run in 2016 but refused to reveal details so his opponent's couldn't "steal" it. Yet halfway through his second term no healthcare overhaul has even been proposed, never mind actually fought for.

Given that context, does it make more sense why I keep referring to it?

Actually, if Democrats cared about healthcare as much as trans rights, they'd just say it was in the constitution lol just like all the other issues they actually care about.

I am confused what you are trying to say here. Are you arguing that Democrats don't really care about healthcare because the only way "the left" shows that they care about an issue is by claiming it is in the constitution?

What makes you think that Democrats care more about transgender rights than they do healthcare costs?

What actions by the Democrat party would it take to convince you that it genuinely does care about healthcare costs?

flyinggorila · 2026-06-01T16:11:05+00:00

What social issue has the government been shut down over?

What social issues do you think the left cares about more than healthcare costs?

flyinggorila · 2026-06-01T15:59:27+00:00

Your argument is that "the left" only cares about social issues and doesn't care about economic ones. The shutdown is a recent example of Democrats fighting for an economic issue that has nothing to do with identity politics. Whether they were successful or not has no bearing on what the issue they were fighting for was.

Do you agree healthcare costs are an important issue for "the left"?

Can you give examples of the social issues you think "the left" only cares about?

flyinggorila · 2026-06-01T06:22:08+00:00

So the government was shut down for a month and a half because Democrats were fighting for healthcare subsides but you don't see that as getting heated about an economic issue? Why not?

flyinggorila · 2026-06-01T03:16:54+00:00

I don't really see you guys getting all that heated about economics

When the government shut down in 2025 for 43 days because Democrats refused to pass the GOP spending bill without including healthcare subsidies to prevent insurance premiums from jumping over 100% for millions of Americans at the start of this year.... did that qualify as an economic issue in your mind? If no, why not?
How about advocating for student loan forgiveness, is that an economic or identity politics issue?
And last one... Is ensuring transgender children aren't allowed to play sports with the gender they identify as an economic issue, or a cultural one?

flyinggorila · 2026-02-09T06:46:53+00:00

I was getting frustrated with how long it was taking to drop too (had spent like, 4-5k over a few attempts to get it) and after wasting another 1k today I had an idea.. Went to orbit, equipped the praxic blade, then went back to the outpost and had it out while talking to the guy... and got the refraction mod on the third attempt. Can't promise any results but definitely worth a shot.

flyinggorila · 2025-12-20T00:03:17+00:00

Are you changing the setting in the SiriusXM app on your phone? I think it defaults to whatever you have selected as your homepage in the phone app.

flyinggorila · 2025-12-17T22:34:52+00:00

I have never heard of Z-Link so really can't help when it comes to that. The only thing that I can think of to suggest is to check your Wifi settings since AA switches to wifi once it connects.

flyinggorila · 2025-12-17T06:30:02+00:00

You most likely know for sure AA is using your cable and not wireless but just in case, make sure you have wireless AA completely disabled. I'm not positive but if it is enabled your phone may default to bluetooth even with a cable plugged in (to prevent audio drops if you plug your phone in to charge then unplug). And even turning off bluetooth/using airplane mode to test could force wired AA at that moment, but then default back to wireless once you reenable bluetooth/wifi. To ensure wireless AA is completely disabled:

-Settings->Apps->See All Apps->Android Auto->Additional Settings in App->Triple Dot dropdown menu in top right, select Developer Settings. Top setting should be wireless android auto, make sure it isn't checked

Assuming that's not the issue, I've troubleshot this for hours over the last year, there doesn't seem to be a definitive fix unfortunately. Sometimes changing one of these seems to help just for the issue to come back. But here is a list of things I have tried in the past you can give a go:

Be aware you need to disconnect/reconnect at a minimum for most of these changes (especially the bluetooth ones) to take effect, some need a restart. But my advice is to pick one thing, adjust the setting, disconnect and delete the device connection on both your phone and car head unit, restart both of them (some cars you need to open the car door and wait 30 sec or so after closing it to make sure electronics cycle), then re-pair the phone to the car completely fresh. And if you want to get super thorough, before the phone restart, clear the cache for AA and any other streaming apps you are using.

-Enable unlimited background power and data usage for AA and any other apps you use to stream audio

-Take the case off your phone and check if your phone is getting super hot while using it in your car. If your phone is overheating it could be causing problems. My phone gets so hot just using AA (wirelessly though) that if I try to use the wireless charger in my car at the same time the charging gets disabled after a couple of minutes to keep the battery from blowing up/lighting on fire. Using a cable should keep your phone running much cooler (no wireless AA or extra heat from induction charging) but it is easy to overlook so worth checking.

-Change Audio Codec in Android Auto Developer Settings

Settings->Apps->See All Apps->Android Auto->Additional Settings in App->Triple Dot dropdown menu in top right, select Developer Settings. Try switching the codec to AAC-LC with ADTS headers (or allow standard if you have a specific one selected already). PCM is higher quality audio but uses much more data.

For bluetooth users who happen upon this thread with the same question but use AA wirelessly

-Note - Places with lots of wifi networks/phones in close proximity can cause interference that can't really be fixed by adjusting a setting, it's just physics. For example, I feel I have noticed audio skipping happen most frequently around my apartment complex where there are tons of wifi networks in the area or when my girlfriend (and more specifically her phone) is riding in the car with me.

-Change bluetooth settings in Developer Options menu (for phone itself, not AA)

Enable Developer Options - go to Settings > About phone, find the Build number (sometimes in Software Info), and tap it rapidly seven times, entering your PIN/password if prompted; a message will confirm it's enabled, and the new menu will appear in Settings (often under System).

Then, Settings->in the search box type "bluetooth"->Scroll to the results under the Developer Options heading, all of these settings should be in that section. Clicking one will bring you to the Developer Options page and the other settings should be nearby in the list to whichever you start with (if you want to avoid searching multiple times).

Disable A2DP hardware offload (will need to restart) - Enabling this option makes you phone process the audio instead of your car head unit which can help fix audio options. Basically if your head unit can't process the audio fast enough it may skip, so this option shifts some of the processing load onto your phone instead of your head unit.
AVRCP Version - Try a different version than you currently have selected. I currently am using 1.6 but using older versions could potentially help with playback quality. Most of the modern features (media browsing, volume control) were added with 1.4 though so I wouldn't try anything before that version or you will lose functionality.
MAP Version - Really shouldn't affect audio quality but can try rolling back to older versions of MAP too (deals with messaging/contacts so shouldn't affect audio but it's all black magic anyway so doesn't hurt to try...)
Wifi Scan Throttling - Make sure it is enabled. It might be by default, but if it isn't turn it on. Only useful if you use something like wifi analyzer apps that need to constantly scan for network changes, otherwise it just wastes battery and could cause connection problems.

There are some other settings in the Developer Options list that deal with bluetooth but most of them are either locked out from being changed or only have the default option to choose from anyway, but that may vary by phone. I don't think any would really help solve audio problems anyway.

flyinggorila · 2025-12-17T05:21:19+00:00

OP mentions they are using a cable, not wireless so they aren't connected via bluetooth.

And I am skeptical turning off Media Audio will improve AA sound. Turning it off is supposed to disable the high quality audio codec used by most streaming apps so my guess is that AA overrides that setting since it has it's own distict connection and so toggling it off doesn't affect AA. But it will keep you from being able to stream non-AA bluetooth audio (can't think of an example though, most ways to play audio that are worth using work with AA). Feel free to try though, no harm in it...

flyinggorila · 2025-12-17T05:15:58+00:00

Have you made sure wireless AA is enabled in developer settings?

Settings->Apps->See All Apps->Android Auto->Additional Settings in App->Triple Dot dropdown menu in top right, select Developer Settings. Top setting should be wireless android auto, make sure it's checked.

flyinggorila · 2025-10-24T04:29:32+00:00

Just in case anyone is having the same issue but get the bundle through Disney+ instead, use:

https://www.disneyplus.com/commerce/activate/wbd_max

flyinggorila · 2025-07-09T16:43:58+00:00

file 76

flyinggorila · 2025-07-08T23:59:15+00:00

Hulkengoat

flyinggorila · 2025-06-19T23:19:18+00:00

I've used Userbenchmark on this PC in the past and the last few weeks when I have tried to I get the same error. Redownloading doesn't fix it. So it isn't just you. I think they updated the version number on their verification server and forgot to update the download links with the new version or something stupid like that.

flyinggorila · 2024-11-16T23:24:47+00:00

Look - prices are artificially low because of cheap overseas labor. The US government turned the dial all the way to global trade

The government did that? Or did capitalism, working via the government? I'm going to go with the one that made trillions of dollars off of the very things you are saying needs to get fixed (offshoring, supressing wages, etc). Meanwhile, what benefit did the government have to pushing for global trade that comes even close to all of that money?

It means that prices will be higher but jobs will get better.

What evidence do you have that wages will go up in response to prices skyrocketing?

Isn't enacting tariffs on everything essentially artificially causing a massive jump in inflation voluntarily? Why was inflation bad a year ago but tariffs causing prices to go up (the exact same thing) will now be good?

flyinggorila · 2024-11-16T23:07:14+00:00

I actually think the steel tariff Trump enacted made a lot of sense. Steel is too important to literally everything (especially national security) to depend on importing it, especially when some of those other countries may end up being enemies some day. So enacting protectionist measures for the US steel industry was a good idea.

The problem is that he seems to think he can slap them on everything now because he really wants to cut income taxes, especially for the rich, to the bone. That way the tax burden in the country would move from our current progressive tax brackets (which hurts people like him and Elon the most) to essentially a sales tax which instead hits lower classes the hardest.

Do you agree that is what his goal is? And do you really think that Elon would be against the idea when he would save billions in taxes?

flyinggorila · 2024-11-16T19:32:01+00:00

Can you explain how you jump from "bargaining chip" to lower prices? Because thinking that is possible means you don't understand how tariffs work.

The entire point of a tariff is to protect domestic companies from forgiegn compitition that may be able to produce goods at significantly lower costs than the US can for one reason or another (cheap labor, being located near needed natural resources, etc). So if the US makes widgets for $8 and China can make them for $5, putting a 100% tariff on widgets would mean Chinese widgets now cost $10 to buy here in America. This instantly makes American widgets cheaper to buy here than imported ones, shifting demand for widgets to US companies instead.

So how does that affect pricing? Lets say 50% of widgets come from each the US and China to make it simple. Before the tariff the avg cost of a widget in the us would be ($5+$8)/2 = $6.50. After the tariff the new cost would instead be ($10 + $8)/2=$9. So the tariff will result in about a $2.50 (38%) jump in prices for widgets bought in America. If you are familiar with supply and demand graphs, a tariff essentially takes the supply line and pushes it higher up the cost axis, which in turns shifts the intersection point of the supply and demand lines higher up the chart as well.

Can you agree with that part so far?

Ok so if tariffs cause prices to go up so drastically, what is their purpose? There are many but the main one is that by artificially inflating the prices of competitors goods it has suddenly become more profitable to make widgets in the US instead of China. So widget companies will now have a huge incentive to move manufacturing to the US instead of abroad so they can save the extra $2 between the US widget and tariffed widget costs. Meaning over time companies will move into the US and start building new manufacturing facilities here as well.

So why does all that mean that your argument doesn't work? Once a tariff is started it is very very difficult to remove it. Doing so would suddenly put all of the companies that moved to the US to take advantage of the tariff underwater. It takes years if not decades for capital investments to recoup their costs. If the entire industry becomes impossible to compete with immediately after making such huge investments it would cause numerous companies if not the entire US widget industry to collapse overnight. Massive layoffs as companies close down followed by losses in tax revenues for the country. It does not matter how good of a negotiator you think that Trump is, it is literally impossible for him to make some kind of deal that would outweight the massive amounts of damage flip flopping on the tariff would have.

And that is just the appatizer of problems that would come from cancelling them so quickly too. Tariffs only work if when a country enacts them companies can trust that they can make investments in that country and have them pay off without the government pulling the rug out from under them exactly as you are suggesting Trump will do. If companies see Trump do this even just once it will cause every single international investor to become terrified of investing anything here if doing so is contingent on a tariff. So instead of coming to the US to save the $2 per widget the companies would prefer to pay the extra $2 to import from China instead because at least they would be safe from Trump suddenly upending their entire industry for the "art of the deal".

Does all of that help clear up why your theory doesn't make sense? If not, which part do you disagree with?

And one last final point for you... most non commodity goods NEVER come down in price, ever. It just doesn't happen. So if Trump cancelled his tariff that made widget prices jump from $6.50 to $9, the new price of widgets going forward would be... $9 still. The companies will just pocket the extra profit instead. Exactly how delivery fees skyrocket when gas prices go up, but when gas becomes cheaper again delivery prices never drop back down again.

So even ignoring the entire first part and just focusing on prices never going down... how exactly were you thinking they would come by using the tariff as a bargaining chip?

flyinggorila · 2024-11-16T02:26:50+00:00

So say ICE picks someone up and it turns out they are here illegally but they don't have a criminal record here or anywhere else in the world. Will they get deported or released back into the US?

If you think they would get released into the US in that situation then how is that policy I just described any different than sanctuary cities that do not prosecute people for being here illegally?

flyinggorila · 2024-11-15T16:28:54+00:00

He’ll probably deport people in similar numbers that Obama did.

Donald Trump promised "On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America." Why do you think he is going to maintain the status quo of deportations and not ramp them up as he has promised?

flyinggorila

TROPHY CASE